Gene Haas' eponymous team has been in F1 since 2016, and since then it has been everywhere from last to best of the rest. Lately, though, things have been looking bleak. That is, until pre-season testing in Bahrain, when the team seemed transformed. Is there real change and, for the first time in a while, hope? Let's see...
Images: Haas F1 Team on Twitter
How we got here
Their first three years (2016-18) the team steadily moved up the order with cars that were increasingly capable, but the sport was becoming very heavily biased toward those who throw the most money at problems and car development. Gene Haas didn't want to throw any more of his own money at it, so the team found a new primary sponsor in Rich Energy and its "unique" CEO William Storey. However, the new sponsor arrived with a downturn in results, and when it became clear that Rich Energy and William Storey were not paying their fair share of the deal, things famously fell apart.
The loss of sponsorship, coupled with the arrival of the pandemic in 2020 meant that season was run effectively on a shoestring budget, using a car that was not only lacking downforce like it's predecessor (although it was less erratic) it was also handicapped by Ferrari's infamous possibly-illegal-but-not-proven-illegal engine handicap that meant the team was essentially consigned to the back of the field with fellow Ferrari customers Alfa Romeo, as well as Williams who were recovering from a season even more shambolic than Haas'.
By the end of 2020 it became clear the team needed money and it needed it now, and so it was forced to drop it's fast-but-erratic driver pairing of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean in favor of Ferrari-backed Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, son of a Russian oligarch whose chemical and fertilizer company came on to sponsor the team. Along with this came a car that was effectively dead in the water; a minimally developed version of the already uncompetitive 2020 car, now driven by two rookies. Predictably, the team came last in the championship, but there was a promised improvement in 2022, since the team spent the whole year working on the new car as the old one flopped.
The changes
It should be noted that Nikita Mazepin was not exactly winning any popularity contests before he entered F1, with his aggressive driving tactics often criticized in F2 and lower categories. In an effort to bolster his public image, he then made the extremely well-planned decision to post a video of himself getting handsy with a woman in the back of a car on the eve of the 2021 season, with speculation already rife that he would or should be dropped. A year of being woefully off the pace of his teammate followed in 2021 after Haas realistically had no choice but to retain him for the money.
Fast forward to 2022 and as you might have guessed, the fact that Mazepin is the son of a Russian oligarch may be a bit of an issue. As sanctions from both the US and the EU trickled down, it became clear that Haas' sponsorship from Uralkali was now untenable, and in the face of economic and social pressure, Haas came to a fork in the road; cut ties with Mazepin and his sponsor, losing money and one of your drivers but avoid the presumably endless stream of criticism and speculation that would accompany such an arrangement, OR keep him on board because you have a contract with him, he is not responsible for the events in Ukraine, and the team still needs the money. In the end, the chose the former: get rid of Mazepin and his sponsor and face the reality of impending short-term economic loss in the face of long-term preservation.
The next question is; who are you going to get to replace Mazepin at such short notice? Sure, a lot of drivers would love to drive an F1 car, but there are a lot of hurdles to jump through, including FIA Super License requirements, and of course availability. In reality, there were four options of varying levels of plausibility: 1) former Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi, whi has ties with Ferrari and recent F1 experience, 2) Pietro Fittipaldi, the team's reserve driver, who knows the team but doen't exactly have a record of setting the world alight, 3) Reigning F2 champion Oscar Piastri, who looks to be the hottest talent of the last few years and is criminally left without a race drive in 2022, and 4) perennial stand-in and F1 nearly-man Nico Hulkenberg. Instead of all of these, Haas instead chose the least plausible yet most sensible option and brought back Kevin Magnussen.
What the changes say about Haas' intent
Magnussen, who made no secret that he was enjoying life after F1, driving in Indycar, IMSA sportscars, and having a Peugeot factory Le Mans drive secured, seemed like the last person to come back (besides maybe Grosjean). However, he and the team departed on amicable albeit unfortunate terms, with many in the team liking his no-nonsense approach to feedback and his hard-nosed racing attitude. Their departure was like a pair of high school sweethearts who separate because they are going to separate colleges, not because they don't like each other anymore. Given that the first race was 10 days away and the final pre-season test only being a couple of days away and in need of a driver, brining in a guy who drove for the team for four years seems like a relatively smart move for the team.
The most important thing, or rather pair of things, about the return of Magnussen are this: 1) it is not just a single-year deal, and 2) it says a lot about how serious Haas still is about F1. I'm surprised that Haas wanted to offer a multi-year deal to Magnussen, since the team has not really been the most stable entity in any capacity. More importantly, Haas resisted the urge to take a 'pay driver' with financial backing but with a possible lacking in talent, and picked a guy who is a known quantity and got to F1 based on his driving merit, not his bank balance. It therefore seems like Haas said "we don't need the money, we need talent," which is a remarkable turnaround from 2020.
Evaluating success
With the team seemingly all over the place over the last 36 months, how will we know if Haas' decisions are a success? Was K-Mag the best option alongside Mick Schumacher? Was the team right to scrap its 2021 in favor of 2022 car development? Well, simply put the team must move forward again. In terms of intangibles, the effect of the return of K-Mag seems to be profound. The team's morale in testing seems about as high as I've seen it since 2018, which was their best year. The team's social media channels, once a barren wasteland of content and self-loathing, are full of pride and optimism, smiling mechanics, and happy drivers. It looks like a completely new team.
Of course, bringing in Magnussen seems like an interesting challenge to Mick Schumacher, who would have probably been the team leader in all but name if Mazepin was still in the other car, since he comprehensively beat the Russian last year. Going up against K-Mag will be a much better barometer of Mick's performance, since Magnussen is a known quantity who has raced against the likes of Grosjean and 2009 champion Jenson Button. Of course K-Mag doesn't always have a record of playing nice with teammates, but I think that since he and Mick are at separate stages in their career there is less potential for friction than before.
Tangibly speaking, I think that Haas realistically has to aim to not be last this year. Maybe that seems like setting the bar low, but they were so hopeless last year that beating at least one team would be a huge step forward. I think P8, where they finished in 2016 and 2017, seems like a reasonable target for the team. Time will tell if they will achieve that or more, but rest assured the team has a chip on their shoulder and a spring in their step, something we haven't seen from them in a long, long, time.
Haas should aim to no longer be the laughing stock of the paddock. And the moves they've made in the last few weeks have shown they aren't playing around. Let's hope America's F1 team is back, baby!
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